Sleepless Nights: The Story of Katrina and Blanca
by Flame Within Ice
Summary: Katrina and Blanca have an adventure! Katrina discovers her powers, Blanca gets a permanent face, and more!
1. Chapter 1: Katrina POV

**Chapter One: Katrina**

I yawned and stretched out on the narrow cot. I shared the room in the orphanage with five other girls, but I only remembered Saharah, Sable, and Mable.

I got out of bed and smoothed my purply-black fur and rubbed my purply-black eyes. I looked around the room. On the wall by each cot were posters and things that the girls tacked up to personalize their space. My bed was covered with a warm purple-and-gold blanket with little black tassels hanging from the corners. I had gotten it from a gypsy at the Brock County Fair two years ago. I had a wooden toybox painted midnight blue with a pattern of silver moons and stars on it that held all my clothes, toys, and belongings. It was what I was allowed to bring with me when my mother died in a fire. On top of it was a candle in a gold-painted candlestick that I was allowed to light, being a senior orphan, or one of the oldest people in the orphanage, not counting the staff.

At that moment Saharah came in, and she stared as she saw me still standing in my purple nightclothes.

"Like, omygosh, WHAT are you still doing in PJ's?! It's nearly 7:15, Kat!" Saharah scolded, and I hopped to with getting dressed. My full name was Katrina, but most people called me Kat. As I threw on some faded black jeans and a silver shirt with the autograph of the renowned Madame Zana marked on it in purple-gold paint. The rest of the shirt was streaked with entertwining black leaves and silhouettes of tarot cards, the symbol of Madame Zana. She came to the Brock County Fair sometimes. I preferred crystal balls myself. They seemed...more mystical, somehow. But then again, I wasn't a fortune teller like Madame Zana. She knew what she was doing.

Carefully I spiked some of the fur on my head into little random points, and fastened my gold hoop earrings in my ears. Finally, I lined my eyes with some silver eyeliner and sprinkled some gold glitter on the rest of my fur.

"Jeez, Kat, do you have to be so goth?" Saharah asked. I snorted and turned to look at her. Khaki cargo pants, sand-colored shirt, mud-brown shoes. Her backpack was more like something you'd see Arabian magic carpet dealers using.

"Jeez, Sarah, do you have to go all explorer on me every day?" I shot back. Saharah rolled her eyes, and turned to make her bed. Saharah was a camel. It made sense that she would wear something to remind her of the desert.

I quickly grabbed my black-and-white backpack that looked as if it had seen one too many years of service, slipped on some black converses, and dashed through the door to the breakfast hall of the orphanage.

Sable and Mable, the two hedgehog sisters, were gobbling down their breakfasts and wearing the latest in fashion. They only bought paw-made clothes, and they still were the most fashionable people in school. I ran past them, grabbing one of the premade bag lunches set out for all school-attending orphans, and a cinnamon muffin as a quick breakfast on the way to school.

"See ya at school, Sable, Mable!" I called over my shoulder as I ran for the doors. I didn't see Crazy Redd until I crashed right into him.

"Sorry, cousin! And by the way, I've got a set of nice watches if--" Crazy Redd pulled out a set of pretty nice watches, though I doubt his means of getting them were nice.

"Not interested," I cut in, and ran by the fox, leaving him completely unhappy that I refused to buy his goods.

Finally I slowed down and munched a bite of muffin. The school was about five blocks down, within walking distance. I hurried as fast as I could go without running, becaus our school started at 7:45. Insane, I know. I reckoned I had about 15 minutes to get to homeroom.

"Oi, wait up!" Saharah was running after me. I slowed and waited for her to catch up, then walked in step with her until we got to the school.

"Aaah, Bromesville Middle, home to the zombie teacher of doooommm!!" Saharah wailed. We all called Mr. Osborne the zombie teacher, because he was pale, often had dark circles under his eyes, had sparse grey hair, and one of his legs was wounded from a war a long time ago, so it wouldn't bend at the knee. Plus he was insane and frightening. He was the oldest squirrel in the history of Bromesville. Unfortunately, he was almost everyone's eighth grade science teacher.


	2. Chapter 2: More Katrina POV

**Chapter Two: More Katrina**

I rolled my eyes at Saharah as Mr. Osborne went over how magnets were attracted to each other. He had dressed up the south side of a magnet with a little piece of floral felt meant to resemble a dress, and the north side with something that looked like a tux. Thus he proceeded with two magnets dressed alike on either end, to show us how magnets were attracted to each other. He did this in a low, droning monotone, something akin to a bee that was half-asleep. The result was that the entire class was either texting under their desks or remarkably sounding like an entire HIVE of bees.

I yawned. The spirit was catching. I dropped off before I knew it.

_I knew it was a dream because I was with a family of black cats, who were clustered around something in a crib. I thought it might be a baby, but no one was cooing over it or commenting on how adorable it was. Instead, their mouths were dropped open in astonishment, and a little toddler was screaming with fear. Slowly, I walked forward to looked into the crib. No one noticed me. Their voices I could not distinguish. They all sounded like Mr. Osborne's bee voice. They were all pointing at the baby in the crib. Staring at it. The mother of this baby was in a rocking chair, shaking. I looked at the baby in the crib. It was a beautiful white cat. A female, by the slender body. Wow, I thought. If she were my age, she could have been a cheerleader. Or a model. Then the baby turned her head in my direction, and I opened my mouth, scared to death. I wanted to scream, to scream until my heart and lungs burst. But nothing came out of my mouth. I wanted to look away, but my dream self held my head there, staring at that...that THING...in the crib. This cat, this white cat in a family of black cats, was weird in itself. What really freaked me out was that she had no face. None. Just an open expanse of white fur, no eyes, no openings for the ears, no mouth, no nose, no whiskers. Then, finally, my dream self lost control and I could scream._

I was still screaming when Mr. Osborne brought his two magnets over to my desk.

"Is there something about these two magnets being attracted to each other that you find frightening, Miss Talview?" He droned in his bee voice. THAT shut me up. I mutely shook my head, while the rest of the class roared with laughter.

A voice came over the intercom, silencing the class.

"Will Katrina Talview please come to the office for a dismissal please. Again, Katrina Talview to the office for a dismissal."

I froze. The orphanage didn't care what happened to us at school. They NEVER took you out of class. Doctor and dental appointments were ALWAYS after school. Only PARENTS took you out of class if you were trouble, or had an appointment. And I had no parents.

Slowly, I got out of my seat and headed to the door. Mr. Osborne was still droning on about how "...magnets, Miss Talview, are really not all that frightening. You see, the metals and magnetic field inside the metals--MISS TALVIEW!" Mr. Osborne's voice spiked to an octave unknown to animalkind, even opera singers. He had noticed I was out of my seat.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING, MISS TALVIEW?" Mr. Osborne screeched. I flinched, as did the rest of the class.

"Uhh...I got called to the office for something, Mr. Osborne..." I squeaked nervously.

"Oh, well, in that case, continue. We will continue talking about the amazing attractions of magnets to each other, and you will simply catch up on what you missed when you return." Mr. Osborne's voice resumed its former monotone, and the class breathed a sigh of relief.

I declined to mention that it was I was being called to the office for a dismissal.


	3. Chapter 3: Guess what: Katrina POV!

**Chapter Three: Guess What...KATRINA!**

The door to the office creaked loudly. _So much for sneaking in un-noticed,_ I thought. Every single person in the office turned and stared. It was well-known throughout the school that no orphanage kids ever got called to the office for a dismissal.

"Uhh...Miss Weatherbiew?" I asked the blue heron behind the office counter. Miss Weatherbiew closed a folder she was reading and peered through the glasses perched on the end of her nose at me. A tiny gray bun was piled onto the top of her head, and her glasses were bright, blindingly neon yellow with little orange reflectors, strung around her neck by a fluorescent pink chain. I tried not to stare. Miss Weatherbiew regularly lost her glasses every week, so maybe her doctor had these specially made.

"The orphanage called. There's a family called the Daylilies looking to adopt you," Miss Weatherbiew squawked in a scratchy voice that sounded like nails covered in cheese grating on a blackboard. Quite a remarkable sound.

"Dalylias," trilled a soft voice from the corner. I spun around, just in time to see a beautiful black cat melt from the shadows underneath a large artificial plant. Her eyes were almond-shaped, and the irises were a deep ocean blue. Around her neck was a necklace of black pearls, subtly glimmering in the lights of the office. She wore a rippling purple dress spangled with blue swooshes that created the strange effect that she was gliding as she walked. My mouth nearly dropped open. _This_ cat was looking to adopt _me?_

"Marina Dalylias," the beautiful cat trilled again, extending a paw. I meekly took it, shaking it lightly.

"Katrina Talview," I managed to say. Mrs. Dalylias smiled, something that filled the room with sudden light, or so it seemed to me. Her beauty was somewhat dampened by the blinding white fangs that all cats have, but the enamel was so well-polished I didn't mind. The light sparked off them, and I smiled back, slightly conscious that it was after lunch, and I dearly hoped nothing was stuck in my teeth.

"Please call me Mari. Now, I'll just sign you out, and we'll pop over to the orphanage to fill out the final papers. Oh, and I should warn you: I have three sons, so you'll be the first girl in our household besides myself." Mari smiled again, and inside a little warm and fuzzy glowed. I don't remember having any siblings. I think I used to be an only child. Now I'd get three brothers!

We, to use Mari's term, "popped" back over to the orphanage and collected my belongings, which weren't many, and were soon on our way to the countryside. As the city skyscrapers were left behind, and rolling hills took their place, I finally realized that I fit in again. I had a true home. A family.

Maybe it was a drop of rain, maybe it was something else, but my eyes felt damp as we pulled into the driveway of a little cottage.


	4. Chapter 4: Katrina POV Again

**Chapter Four: Katrina for a couple more chapters...**

I stepped through the door of the cottage in amazement. I was in a broad hallway that was flooded with light. I looked through a door off the hallway and gasped. The first thing that caught my eyes was a wall of windows facing the west, with beautiful blue and green curtains pulled back and tucked behind massive conch shells secured onto rich, dark apple-wood pillars.

Then I saw the walls. The walls were covered with seashells of every kind, all pressed into cement, the rough edges smoothened and shined. The shells were patterned into swirls and spreading waves, and in between them the walls were painted yellow.

"That's our living room," Mari said, blinking her warm, welcoming eyes at me. I managed a stunned smile and sank into a little silk-and-cushion hammock hanging near the window wall. Mari gracefully sat down on a couch patterned with sea creatures and tilted her head to one side.

"I believe your new brothers are coming..." Mari's eyes sparkled, and sure enough, three other black cats with baseball caps came running into the living room. I blinked. They were all younger than me, and all looked absolutely delighted to see me.

"YAYY!" The three shouted, and charged. I sprang up out of the hammock and grinned. The boys skidded to a stop and introduced themselves.

"I'm Rajha, that's Sakhet, he's two years younger than I am, and that's Felyo, he's my twin brother, if you hadn't noticed," explained the boy who looked to be about six. The four-year-old beside them stared up at me with large eyes, clutching a plastic whiffleball in his hand and wearing a Cub Scouts uniform.

"I'm Katrina," I replied, and the little one called Sakhet grabbed my paw in his rather chubby, childish one, and tugged.

"C'mon Katwina! Your room iz'za upstai's!" Sakhet mewed, and tugged my paw again. I followed him up the stairs and into my new room. I stopped short.

The room was _perfect._ It was just like my personal area in the orphanage, except bigger. I set down my stuff and walked around. The bed was neatly covered with a mattress pad, and the bedstead was painted a gorgeous iridescent color. The walls were dark purple, and I sighed with pleasure, glad that I'd be in a room that wasn't painted a weird color, like pink.


	5. Chapter 5: Another Katrina POV Chapter

**Chapter Five: AHA! KATRINA!**

I slid down on the bed, still holding my suitcase and box of stuff. I decided to unpack...

_Several Months later..._

I came down the stairs. Everyone was crowded around the crib. I smiled. So the newest member of the family had been born. I threaded my way between cats and peered into the crib. It was a white cat, and instantly my blood ran cold. You see, I'd been having these nightmares for months, about a white cat with no face.

"What's her name?" I asked, judging gender by the pink ribbon tied around a paw.  
My adopted mother hesitated. A shadow of worry came over her face.

"Blanca..." she whispered. I looked into the crib. And almost screamed, just like in the dreams. Just in time I clamped my mouth shut, and managed to squeak out,

"Hi, Blanca..." The little white cat moved her head toward my voice. Just as I had suspected, poor Blanca had no face. None at all. Just an open expanse of white...like a canvas.

I didn't know what I did then. All I remembered was a gypsy speaking a prayer over a child that had lost half its face in a fall from a riverbank straight onto a sharp rock sticking out of the river. The mess had cleared away, to be replaced by a smooth expanse of brown fur, and...the gypsy had drawn her a new face. That's what went through my mind.  
I didn't understand what I said, but all of a sudden ink pots appeared in front of me.

In a daze, I dipped a brush into the ink pots and drew Blanca a face.

The eyes blinked once, twice. The whiskers wiggled in experimentation. The mouth opened and hiccuped. Blanca twitched her new nose. My adopted family simply stared in astonishment, and I weakly sat back in a chair. Mari wrapped her paws around me and whispered in my ear,

"Thank you, Kat. I don't know what you did, but thank you for giving my new daughter a life."


	6. Chapter 6: Blanca POV!

**Chapter Six: Blanca**

**June 2**

I can't remember much until I was about 3. Kat says that's normal for babies, though I don't think I qualify as normal. And secretly, I don't think Kat does either. She is much more than a black cat. She is, I believe, a magical black cat.  
This morning I woke up, and looked carefully in the mirror. I stared at my face. It looked normal, but as i brushed my eyelash, a couple flakes of ink crumbled into my hand. I frantically combed at my whiskers. Black ink flaked off. I sighed. Another reminder that this face could not last. Kat doesn't remember how she did the first face, so I have to go to people, one after the other. They seem to come under a trance. They are suddenly able to paint me a face, and animate it. But it never happens again, except in rare cases when they remember the words they spoke. I wish it would happen with the good artists, like Clarabelle, Bella for short. She had given me a face, a beautiful one, with wonderful almond-shaped eyes the color of a misty green meadow. My nose had been a pale chocolate brown, and my whiskers had been silvery feathers of fog. My ears had been lined with cream fur. All this had lasted for a week, and a week only. Now I had regrettably turned to Bella's sister, Dora. Dora seemed to think giant eyes with child-drawing eyelashes, and a round, piggy nose with a smileyface and whiskers looked good. I sighed. I pulled my backpack onto my back and braced myself for the first day of kindergarten.

**Later**

I cannot bring myself to talk about school. All I can say is that is was worse than I feared.

**Next day**

I trudged to my desk the next day. The other kids stared obnoxiously, their mouths open slightly with a stupid expression on their faces. I nervously sat in my chair, and tried to concentrate on the teacher's reading of a nursery rhyme:

"Three little kittens  
Lost their mittens,  
And they began to cry..."

Then a voice snarled from somewhere beside me, in a low whisper,

"One little kitten lost her face, and she began to die..."

I stared at the floor. I turned slightly, and chills ran up my spine. In the chair right beside me, almost touching, the kid who had taunted me was changing. He was a wolf with blue fur, Lobo. But now long, twisted black horns were sprouting from his head, red, bat-like wings from his back. His tail was scaly and red, with a spade-shaped tip. Large, muscled, red, scaly arms were bulging from his shirt, and his face had changed into a bull's with red eyes, and a black nose with a gold ring in it.  
Fear paralyzed me. This kid had just changed into a demon right before my eyes! The teacher continued on with another activity, a story this time, of Hansel and Gretel. She was completely oblivious. Just at the part where the old woman reveals herself as a witch and puts Hansel in a cage to fatten up, the rest of the students took up a chant:

"Blanca, Blanca, little white cat,  
Why are you afraid, Blaaaanca?  
We won't kill you, Blaaaanca,  
We just wanna see if you'd make a nice snack!"

The other kids had also changed into demons. They now closed in around me, their hot breath breathing down my neck and onto my face.

The teacher's head snapped up.  
"Well, well, are we making a snack of little Blanca? Why are you leaving me out? Didn't you know, I'm quite fond of her type!"

Then the teacher changed into a great black demon, like one of the Grecian Furies that Katrina had learned about in school. She pounced on me, and her claws slashed towards my face.

And I woke up. The clock was barely at 10:00. I lay shivering. What really happened at school wasn't the nightmare, but the students had taunted me, though not quite in such a grisly fashion. The teacher was actually quite nice, and encouraged the shyer students to make friends. But no one approached me at recess, at least not to make friends. I spent lunch hour shunted down to the wiggly seat at the end of the table, and Lobo the wolf flipped my dessert, chocolate mousse, onto the ground. I burst into tears, and endured the rest of lunch hour being laughed at.

Now, in my bed, in the wake of the nightmare, I cried again. I would not sleep tonight, not if I was going to have a nightmare like that again.

**Blanca occasionally talks to her stuffed animals. She'd awesome that way.**


	7. Chapter 7: Katrina POV

**Chapter Seven: Katrina**

I hauled myself into my seat at school the next day, and groaned as Mr. Weaver droned on about the school dance coming up this Friday. Not to be rude, but I really _did not_ care about the school dance, not when my eyes could barely stay open and I drifted to sleep during gym. Finally, the morning announcements came on, cutting Mr. Weaver's talk short.

I trudged down the hallway to my next class, World History with Mr. Limberg. I tripped over the threshold, grabbed the nearest chair, and pulled it down with me as I fell flat on my face. Quickly I jumped up, hoping the clatter hadn't been noticed. Surprisingly, it hadn't. The students in the hallway were much too loud to hear anything besides what they wanted to hear, and Mr. Limberg had gone to fetch a couple copies. The rest of the students were almost as loud as those in the hall outside, and were talking and texting under their desks in case Mr. Limberg suddenly came back.  
Breathing a sigh of relief, I settled down in my seat at the back of the class and waited until Mr. Limberg had come in, turned out the lights, and started the daily slide show. I dropped off to sleep almost immediately, completely unnoticed among the shadows near the door.

_Something was running through the woods. I could hear its frantic heartbeat, going 90 miles an hour. The thing was crashing through the undergrowth, running for dear life. The animal paused, and then resumed running. I opened my eyes and found myself in a dream world. A thick forest of towering fir trees rose around me, and snow was lightly coming down. The animal in the bush was running, running, but never seemed to get closer or farther away. And suddenly I was running, too, running for my life, but I was moving, moving, until suddenly I stumbled out of the woods. Spreading away until it swallowed the night sky, with moonlight shimmering on its rippling water, was a great, black, lake. And standing on the shore was Blanca. She was looking out across the lake, staring into the horizon, where the lake stretched. She turned to me._

"We need to cross it, Katrina. There is a great evil on the other side, that we must destroy. Only we can do this, Katrina, because no one else believes..."

Blanca's voice trailed off. I turned back around and ran towards the forest, but this time, it had changed. It was now the forest in daylight and summer, the forest beside my family's little cottage. It was beautiful, but I could sense there was something evil in it, some little fragment of the great evil Blanca spoke of. I stood in the heart of the forest, listening. And I realized I could hear nothing. Not a single wild bird was singing. The forest was deathly silent. Then a bird trilled one single note, a warning. I turned around. Sitting there in the path was a white stone. It certainly hadn't been there before. The stone was lying in a mud puddle, but it was not dirty. It practically glowed, and behind it, a trail of white glowed, too, a path? I picked up the stone and put it in my pocket. The path vanished. The birds started to sing again. I pulled the stone out of my pocket. The birds stopped singing, and the path appeared again. This time I felt a tug in my mind, as if I knew what lay at the end of the path, but how could I? I didn't know what this "great evil" was, but somehow I knew that at the end of the path was a little fragment of the great evil. I put the stone in my pocket again, and suddenly I awoke.

Mr. Limberg was reaching the finale of his slide show. I rolled onto my side, and something pressed against my leg. Wondering, I reached into my pocket. My paw shivered as I felt something round and smooth. I looked down at my pocket. The white stone was there.

Which meant that the great evil...was real.


	8. Chapter 8: Blanca POV

**Chapter Eight: Blanca**

**June 3**

I had a scary dream last night, Melody. I know you're just a stuffed animal with a face sewn on, but I feel like you can hear me. You and my family are the only ones who care...

Last night, I dreamed I was standing on the shores of a great black lake. Katrina came out of the woods. She looked bewildered, but I suddenly had a great "know". I knew that this forest, the Forest of Dreams, was a real place, and that the moonlit waters of the lake existed in the waking world, and that there was a great evil across the lake. I told Katrina this, and resumed my staring beyond the lake. The scary part was that I couldn't tell what the evil was. It hung over the world like a raincloud, breathing hot breaths, rasping in ancient tongues of doom and destruction to all animals. After Katrina turned back in the woods, I entered a small grove of white trees. A beautiful cat, wearing a shawl spangled with gold and purple filaments of metallic thread, was standing there. She held up a card.  
_It is the THUNDER symbol, in its inverted state. Destruction, Uncertainty, and Decisiveness. Perhaps it means nothing. But it may mean everything..._  
Then the beautiful cat looked sadly at me, and turned around to walk away. I watched her go. Then I realized that the cat was more than black. She was sooty, and a chill swept through me as a vision appeared before my eyes.  
_Flames leapt into the night, silhouetting a black shape on the hillside. You couldn't make out the features, just a couple red eyes shrouded by blackness, but the thing laughed hideously, rasping slightly. In the village below, two families raced to and fro.  
"KATRINA!KATRINA!" screamed one black cat, clutching the paw of her husband. They were turning to go back to the house, to look for their missing child. They stepped through the doorway, and the roof caved in, drowning their terrified screams.  
Another black cat raced upwards toward the creature on the hill.  
"You did this, you monster! You killed them!" she shouted at the creature. The thing's eyes glinted malevolently, and it rasped in a hoarse voice,  
"Your fourth child will be cursed for all eternity..."  
_  
After that, I had woken up.

Melody, something evil is out there. It took Katrina's family and it took my face. I don't know how, when, or even where to go, but I know that Kat and I must lift this curse, and destroy this evil. Who would believe me if I told anyone about this? They would laugh, like they always do. A forest where there is no border between dreams and reality? A great evil that can bend nature to its will? A stone that lights the way? They would never believe, Melody. Not until it was too late.


	9. Chapter 9: Katrina POV

**Chapter Nine: Katrina**

I quietly crept down the stairs. Blanca was waiting for me, a duffel bag in her arms. It bulged considerably.  
"What's in there?" I asked.  
to  
"Food," she replied. I stared.

"Where did you get that much food?" Blanca put a finger to her lips and motioned for me to come on. In my duffel bag I had two sleeping bags, a tent, some spare clothes, swimsuits, blankets, matches, a flint and tinder in case the matches got wet, a compass, several water 2-liter bottles of water, a notebook, pencils, some candles and a lantern.

Together we slipped out into the starry night and went into the woods. A little ways in I stopped and stared. In a large clearing, a small field of corn and wheat rippled over the ground, punctuated by fruit trees and beehives. A small clay oven was planted near the center of the clearing, and a small coffee grinder was perched atop it.  
Vegetables and herbs were neatly groomed in a little patch. Blanca turned to me and beamed.

"Mom told me about this place last year. She and Dad have been keeping this garden all their lives," Blanca explained. I looked curiously at Blanca's duffel bag. She patted it and continued,

"Ingredients for a variety of foods, another little coffee grinder, several sheaves of wheat and corn, a couple bags of scones, fruit stored in a picnic basket, a couple cartons of eggs, a miniature clay oven, and a couple pots and pans."

I stared at the duffel bag, but couldn't quite grasp the fact that all that stuff could fit in there.

"Well, we'd best get going." I finally said.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We continued through the night until we were far from home. Occasionally I took the white stone out of my pocket and checked the compass, writing down directions as we went. I wanted to make sure that we'd get back.

I set up the tent by a meandering stream, and Blanca set out a package of macaroni and cheese, which she must have taken from the house, and filled a pot with water. I started to use a match, then decided that they should be saved for emergencies. I pulled out the flint and tinder, and sparks flew onto the kindling. With some tending, the fire flared up to a neat little blaze. Blanca held the pot of macaroni over the fire, and fairly soon the food was done. I mixed the cheese into the soft macaroni and dished it out on some plates. We ate, then climbed into our sleeping bags and slept.

Something howled in the distance. I froze. We had been traveling all day, and could see mountains far ahead. The something howled again, a lonely, hungry cry: "Ahooooo!" Then another something answered with an equally eerie cry: "Ahoooooo!"

"Wild wolves," I whispered to Blanca.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Red eyes glinted in the darkness. Shadows swirled and obscured the creature. With rasping laughs, it unleashed a pack of shadows upon the land.

Blackness, in the general shape of a wolf, bounded over the mountains, howling. Its brother answered it, and soon more and more. From the trees the blackness came, and as it ran, it grew more solid, until the shadow spiraled off like mist and ten wolves with fur darker than a moon and starless night were running over the ground. Faster than any mortal wolf they pursued their prey.


	10. Chapter 10: Blanca POV

**Chapter Ten: The really long Blanca chapter**

We raced through the forest, listening as the wolves got closer with their howling. Finally Katrina grabbed my paw and we shot up a tree. Scanning the ground, Katrina slowly smiled. I wondered at this. What could she possibly be thinking about?

"Hey, Blanca, I have an idea," Katrina said. "Follow my lead and don't fall..." she whispered in my ear. Before I could stop her, Katrina leaped from the tree, landing lightly on a branch of a neighboring tree. Slowly, I edged out on my branch, then leaped. My paws, to my relief, landed squarely on Katrina's branch. It shook slightly with the weight. Barely breathing, we slowly hopped from tree to tree, branch to branch. In the distance, we could hear the wolves, puzzling over why our scent clearly went up one tree and then disappeared.

That night, we stopped in the wide crook of a live oak, and rolled out our sleeping bags over the fork. I carefully pulled out some bagels and passed one to Katrina. She didn't say anything, but spread a bag beneath the bagel for crumbs. We ate in silence, and I felt my eyelids grow heavy.

Suddenly, the cracking of a branch jolted me from mid-slumber. Katrina was staring at the ground, where two red eyes glared malevolently up at us. Katrina pulled out her smooth stone. The silver path appeared, one wide, main road heading out before us, and a side branch pointing straight at the creature on the ground. Swallowing, I whispered to Katrina,

"These aren't normal wolves..." And they weren't In the dim light of the moon, I could make out huge black shapes, and several pairs of blood-red eyes. One wolf stepped into a patch of moonlight, and I could see that it was as large as a fully-grown wild black bear, with startlingly white fangs, as if they had never eaten in their entire life. Cold prickles shivered down my spine. I yelped involuntarily as a hand touched my arm. Paralyzed with fear, I turned and looked into the green eyes of an indistinguishable figure. In the dim light, I could make out hand motions that seemed to be saying, "No harm. Follow. I go, no wolves."

I looked over at Katrina. She was nodding, so the figure must be good. We followed the thing through the treetops, on a hidden path through the canopy. The creature was agile, running along the connecting vines between trees, about ten feet above the height where we had leaped from tree to tree. Up here, there were highways of crisscrossing vines and branches. We trekked along, the creature always glancing back at us with those green eyes. Eventually, we came to a place in the foothills of the mountains where there was a giant tree. The branches created a giant hollow in the center, and more green eyes peered out from hollows in the wood at us.  
Our guide made some more hand motions at us: "Welcome. I Thelda, of Marshi tribe." The creature moved to the center of the hollow and a fire was soon lit. In the dancing light of the flames, I could see the creature Thelda clearly. It was a squirrel, with sleek brown fur and dark tan tufts of fur on its ears. Its paws appeared to be red fur, and swirly cream lines of fur decorated them.  
"Hello," Katrina said slowly. As an afterthought, she smiled and waved. "I am Katrina. This is my sister, Blanca." She paused and attempted to sign "sister". Struggling, Katrina sighed and gave up that sign. Pointing to the swirly cream signs on Thelda's paws, she asked, "What do those mean?" Thelda was staring at her. He was looking into the air as if he could find her voice there, and then he stared suspiciously at her throat. He gave a chittering noise, then screeched, "Marshi!" and fell silent.

I decided to try signing to them. Gesturing with my paws, I managed to say, "Why you live here? No wolves always, I think. These strange, bad evil wolves, no normal." Thelda seemed to understand this, but before signing or speaking, he peered closely at us. Suddenly he backed away, chittering and screeching. All the other green eyes vanished, and the squirrel tribe could be heard racing away through the trees. Shaking a paw at us, Thelda screeched,

"Chitter chitter! Chitter chitter ch-ch-ch-ch! Predators! Predators!" And backed away quickly.

"No!" Katrina yelled. "Wait," she said, softer this time. "Predator?" she asked. Signing madly at us, Thelda appeared to say,

"Predators! Predators! You sharp-paws, sharp-mouths, hunt like wolf, yes? You kill-eat Marshi, they your prey!" Katrina suddenly understood.

"He means that we have claws and fangs, and as best as I can figure, someone with claws and fangs in the wild kills and eats the ones who don't," she explained. I quickly lifted a paw and deliberately bit off the sharp tips on each one, including my hind paws. Then I stuffed a piece of tree bark in my mouth and attempted to appear as least dangerous as possible. This seemed to amuse Thelda, and he came closer, running his paws over my nubbed claws and feeling bits of soggy bark stuck to my teeth. Accepting me as harmless, he cooperated and began to speak.

"You no predators, eh? Bear wolf hunt you, yes? Why bear wolf come? They never here before, now they hear, why is that?" he asked.

"We traveled through woods, searching to kill great evil," Katrina explained. "Bear wolf come when we near large hills, mountains."

Thelda considered this, and then disappeared into a hollow for a few seconds. He came out again with a large clay tray of different powders and soils. He ran a paw over my face, and then said triumphantly,

"I make face stay, no crumble each week." Thelda proclaimed. With a few words and scrubs with his paw, everything went black. I could no longer hear or see or smell or speak. Somehow, I could breathe. I felt Thelda's paws drawing on my face, and then my other senses came back. I opened my eyes and stared into a pool of water, my reflection staring back at me.

"You like, I make face stay." Thelda added. I gazed at a remarkable sight in the water. On the white fur, my eyes were lovely and almond-shaped, slanting upward at the corners. The irises were bright green, and my lashes were feathery white streaks. My nose was pink and the right shape. My mouth was perfect, and the whiskers were long and feathery white. The most interesting sight of all, however, were my ears. They were normal, up to the top, where two tufts of brown fur gave me the look of a lynx. I also resembled a Marshi squirrel.

"I...I like it," I told Thelda. Thelda said a few more words, and a shiver passed through my face. I ran a hand to my ears. The fur didn't feel painted on, but was a part of me. I smiled at Katrina, the first smile in a while, it seemed.

"Now you be part of Marshi," Thelda said, dipping a feathery-looking leaf into some blue substance. He lifted it out and pressed it first on one side of me, and then on the other. From where the leaf stem was, he drew with a twig a spiraling, swirling pattern in green, running down each of my legs to curl into a coil on my paws. On the top of my tail he painted yellow dots, and more went down the bridge of my nose. With another few words, a shiver passed through my body. Wonderingly, I place a paw on the feathery blue leaf pattern, but I couldn't feel the substance on my fur. Twisting my head around, I gasped as I looked at the smooth blue fur where the blue substance had been, and the green fur coiling down to my paws. Once more, the clay had become a part of me.

Katrina was completely astonished. Her mouth gaped open. Thelda turned to her and painted with a sparkling gold dye mystical swirls and purple swirls, and he made the dye fur again. Then he said a few more words, and Katrina froze.

"What happened?" I asked. Katrina whispered quietly,

"The SHOOTING STAR symbol, in its natural state. Happiness, Peace, and Hospitality..."

Okay. That totally freaked me out. Thelda just gave Katrina the powers of magic and fate, the same traits of true fortunetellers.


	11. Chapter 11: Katrina POV

**Chapter Eleven: Katrina**

I followed Thelda and Blanca over the highways of the forest. Below, the wolves had found us and were keeping pace on the ground, silent and ominous. I glanced nervously down at them. My paws skittered over the trunk. I wasn't used to walking on four legs. That was something _wild_ animals did.

"I don't think I should call you Blanca anymore," I mused aloud. Blanca glanced over her shoulder and smiled, a smile that would never fade. The beautiful markings dotted down her nose sparkled in the slightest glimmer of light. I looked down at the dark gold and purple swirls scattered over my fur and my mind whirled as the magic sense of Sight was gently prodded by my nerves. With a flick of the eyes at a piece of bark, I could sense the entire story of the tree, and what was yet to come. This tree in particular would live a long and happy life.

But something more was troubling me. When I took out the white stone, the silver path of moonbeam white appeared, one trail leading to the mountains, with a side branch pointing at the wolves below. I heard one growl quietly. My paws tingled. Some great magic was interfering with my Sight. Black dots danced before my eyes. I skewed to the side.

"Katrina!" Blanca shouted, whirling around and grabbing the scruff of my neck. I blinked my eyes. The dots were gone, and my paws were normal.

"Something just happened...I'm not sure..." Claws clicked up the tree branch. A black squirrel ran past me, and I felt my paws tingle again. The squirrel paused after it passed Thelda, then uttered a harsh, guttural noise, nothing like the chitters Thelda had made. Thelda's tail flared with alarm, and my fur stood on end. Blanca crouched low to the branch, eyes wide with fear. Several more completely encircled us. They stared at us. We stared at them. They all had red eyes.

"Umm…" Blanca said nervously. "Hi?" One of the squirrels, the leader, it appeared, made something that sounded like laughter.

"Um, I have to…_go_…go," I squeaked, thinking fast. The circle parted to let me through. I ducked behind a trunk, my tail sticking out so they knew I was still there.

Away from the demon squirrels, my Sight unfroze. My heart thumped, my mind raced. I could use the Sight to my advantage, for I doubted the demons knew I had it, but…_how?_

Then it hit me.


	12. Chapter 12: Blanca POV

**Chapter Twelve: Blanca**

I sighed inwardly. Did Blanca really have to go to the bathroom, or did she have a plan? The demon squirrels were staring at Thelda and me. I swallowed and took a step back, then startled forward when my tail touched fur so cold it burned. Shakily I wrapped my tail around my paws and shivered. They were so cold...as if they weren't even alive...what were they then? I could touch them, feel the cold, look into their eyes, see malevolent intelligence looking back at me. I stared deep into the red eyes of their leader. With enough concentration, I could look straight through them. It was as if they were just...dense mist. But they were real, real as the tree branch beneath me.

Katrina chose this moment to come back from the "bathroom". She had a look in her eyes-the one that means "Suckers..." This look confused me. What had Kat figured out over there?

"We will escort you to our master now." It wasn't a choice. Katrina came forward, on her way whispering "Follow my lead..." to Thelda and me. I was about to ask-whisper back what on earth she meant, when she brushed between two demons, paying no heed to their freezing cold fur, looked the leader directly in the eyes, and said without a trace of fear,

"You'll have to catch me first." Then she took off running down the branch. Thelda and I quickly did the same, figuring out in the exact same time what "follow my lead" meant. The leader demon gave a snarl of fury and pursued us, but as he gained and we desperately raced over, under, and around branches, twigs and broad leaves whipping our faces, pine needles stinging our backs, something magical happened. The leader tripped.

"What did you _do_, Kat?" I asked in amazement. Katrina gave a big grin.

"I put a curse on them, of course!" she answered. Thelda glanced over his shoulder.

"No chance of go to Marshi now. Dark squirrels follow us, they find way, kill alla Marshi. I lead to mountains, there way through them no creature know," he said. I also chanced a glance over my shoulder. The squirrels were working themselves into a frenzy, gaining several treelengths, then all tripping over one another in a chain reaction, like when one person in a bicycle club crashes and all the others don't stop in time.

"What's on the other side of the mountains, Thelda?" I called over to him. Thelda hesitated, nearly stumbling himself. He didn't answer.

"Thelda? What's on the other side of the mountains?" Katrina asked.

"A strange forest, stretching to the end of the sky. What creatures live there, I not know. But be careful, no one return from there with alla the pieces of their mind. Those pieces get scattered, the pieces of reality, swoosh, gone. You left seeing what is not real and thinking sky is down and earth is up, stars are singing, deep water is shallow." Thelda said slowly. A shiver ran down my spine.

"And one of Marshi, him name Kalish, him came out with mind all gone, flew away. Him near death, but when we brought him home and he recovered, he left, raving and raving about a lake that is always moonlit, going on forever, to the edge of the world-"

"But the world is round!" Katrina objected. "It's been proved!"

Thelda gave her a long look.

"I said Kalish came back with alla mind gone and flew away, but him believe every word of his madness. Maybe there is truth, but is there real things like truth and reality in that forest? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe if you found the pieces of reality it would separate into real and dream, but first you'd have to find the pieces of reality without going mad."

I glanced at Katrina. She and I were thinking most likely the same thing.

_An endless lake forever lit by moonlight? A strange forest? Those sound familiar._


	13. Chapter 13: Katrina POV

**Chapter Thirteen: Katrina**

Thelda led us to the foot of the mountains. From there, a rocky path led up into the swirling mist at the hidden peak. Here, the Marshi squirrel left us.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I wish I could make sure you cross the mountains safely, but I must return to my tribe. Farewell, Katrina and Blanca. May the light guide you...to the farthest reaches of the earth and back." Thelda raised a paw in farewell, and I did the same. Blanca held his gaze with her eyes, her beautiful eyes, and the tufts of fur on her ears quivered in a breeze. As we turned to go our separate ways, I returned the traditional farewell of Animalia.

"May the light guide you, Thelda of the Marshi."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

It was hard going on the mountain. Blanca staggered with her food bag behind me, and my bag of supplies wasn't getting any lighter, either.

"Let's rest," I gasped. Blanca needed no further advice. She dropped to a boulder, completely exhausted.

"So what now?" Blanca asked between gulps of water from a bottle. I looked around at the empty woods.

"Maybe we should-" I stumbled as an electric current jolted through my fur. I quickly pulled out the white stone, but no sidepaths branched off it. I returned the stone to my bag and looked around again. The woods were empty, yes. Empty and silent.

"Blanca, do you see anything?" I whispered, suddenly afraid of the silence. Blanca glanced over her shoulder and up into the trees.

"No..." she said slowly, "But I feel really weird, not scared exactly, just apprehensive..."

My ears twitched. I heard something. It's amazing how loud another sound can be in a perfectly silent forest.

"Listen," I whispered again. "Someone's singing."

Blanca and I crept through the undergrowth, listening as the singing grew louder. We came to another path over the mountain, except it seemed unearthly. It glowed with a soft moon-like luminescence, and a little ways down it, pale creatures were walking and singing. I strained to hear the words, but all I heard was a general tune, sighing and rising in a sad lament. The pale creatures came closer. They did not seem to see us, and walked on the strange path, staring straight ahead and singing their sad song. The first to come seemed more solid, more real than the rest. It was a beautiful snow-white doe, an old-fashioned lantern hanging from her mouth. She alone appeared to see us, and her eyes watched us as she passed. In that moment, I could hear what she was singing, but my ears swore that the doe had never spoken:

_We are walking, walking,  
To a land, a land,  
In this land there is no pain.  
We wish to fight, to fight,  
For our beliefs, our beliefs,  
But in this land there is no war.  
Oh, we wish to cry out, cry out,  
As our loved ones do, loved ones do,  
But in this land there is no sadness.  
We walk this path, this path,  
Wishing to grieve our past, our past,  
But in this land there is no grief.  
We are walking, walking,  
To a land, a land,  
Wishing to breathe, to breathe,  
But in this laaaand...there is no life.  
_

By the time the doe was done, I was crying. Walking past us were the spirits of the dead.


	14. Chapter 14: Blanca POV

**Chapter Fourteen:Blanca**

"Where are they going?" I asked, though I was afraid I knew the answer. Katrina shrugged.

"We should follow them. Then we'll know," she said simply. I had to agree with her logic. We decided to follow the spirits. Wherever they had come from was not important. What was important was where they were going.

We followed them on their silvery path, through the mountain forest. I looked nervously around. The trees looked normal enough. We headed higher and higher, up to the peak of the mountain, and started down.

Now we were on guard. Everything was different. Thelda had thought we would have to cross an entire mountain range, but there was something special about this single giant hill. There was no mountain range on the other side of it. We could see, to the left and right, mountains, stretching off to the horizon. But in front of us was a great forest, with white, leafless trees holding their frail branches to the sky. Mist and fog was coiled densely within the forest, and I could make out nothing inside. The procession of spirits headed down the slope, on their silver path, until there was a point when they no longer looked like spirits, and their path looked real. But then it flickered, and they were spirits and path of moonbeams again. I blinked. What was this place?

Katrina looked curiously at a plant growing at the entrance to the forest.

"Hey, Blanca, what's this?" she asked curiously. I came over and looked. It was a stalk of corn, waving in the wind, with a happy smiley face on it.

"Hello, I'm Corny!" it said conversationally. And then I remembered.

_Blanca, age 3, is walking through a meadow. She drags her stuffed animal monkey behind her, a cute face painted upon her. She sits down and watches as a random corn stalk grows from the ground. It has a happy smiley face on it.  
"Hello, I'm Corny!" it says conversationally.  
"Hewwo, Cowny," Blanca replies in a small voice. Then she giggles. Something about corn with a smiley face makes her laugh.  
And then Blanca wakes up. It was all a dream._

"Katrina, we're here." I whispered, barely audible.

"We're where?" Katrina replied.

"You _know_ where, Katrina. This is it. This is the Forest of Dreams."

**********************************

END OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

Keep your eyes peeled for the second book in the Katrina and Blanca series...Forest of Dreams!


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